Lich Lords and cards as story
Lore forum
Posted on Aug. 23, 2018, 10:36 p.m. by legendofa
I was poking around ideas for a theme deck when this subject caught my eye. What exactly is a lich lord, and how does somebody become one? I believe it's more than just being a powerful lich. It requires control of a ton of black mana to become a Lich, even a nefarious one, but all the lich lords depicted in cards require green or blue mana. Lich Lord of Unx, Kheru Lich Lord, Dralnu, Lich Lord, and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord are all in Sultai-ish colors. Additionally, they represent this theme across four different planes. Zul Ashur, Lich Lord appears in a lot of flavor text, but doesn't really seem to have any story. Mister Lostspoons says that it's possible for multiple lich lords to coexist, in the flavor text for Feral Abomination. This is reinforced by two of the four lich lords being nonlegendary, although the one from that plane is legendary.
I don't have a comprehensive theory to tie this all together yet. Can anybody else shed some light on the topic, or at least throw in an entertaining guess?
kanokarob That might be true, and I suspect that there's no formal definition of a lich lord in the design files. I'm just interested in the idea that while becoming a lich only requires black mana, becoming a lich lord requires mastery of another color, specifically blue or green. Why those two? I'm not sure yet. It might have something to do with them being the most contemplative colors. Maybe it involves some kind of isolation? But most liches already are isolated...
Even if I'm overthinking it (which I'm sure I am), it's fun to look for pieces, put theories out there, and see if they hold up. I was writing that last paragraph literally as I thought of it.
kanokarob says... #2
I always assumed they were just liches that happened to have a kingdom or territory under their rule in one manner or another. The lich lord coexisting line could just mean that they dont have to fight each other.
August 24, 2018 8:09 a.m.